At any given time, most households store large quantities of food items. Due to the quantity of food that is stored, it is often difficult for people to know what food items they have on hand, what food items they need to purchase more of, whether various food items are about to expire, etc. This lack of awareness of the status and/or quantity of stored food items also makes it hard for people to determine what recipes they can make with the food items that they have on hand. Additionally, when shopping people are often not confident that they have a required food item at home. Due to this lack of certainty, people will purchase the required food item to ensure that they have the required food item, which means that people often purchase redundant food items. Accordingly, there is a need for a system that allows users to more easily track and monitor the food items that they have on hand.